How to make your digital images look like Lomo Photography

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By A1handyman
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(18 Ratings)

Before and After

This is a fast and easy way to turn an average photograph into a work of art! This technique mimics the results of a photograph taken by a Lomo LC-A camera.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Digital Photo
Photoshop®

Step 1

Crop and size your image. The first thing you'll need to do is make a vignette. To do this, start by drawing a fairly large circle around the edge of your photograph. Set a feather located under the "Select" menu. I like to feather my vignette anywhere from 90 to 120px. After you have done this, click OK and inverse the selection (Also located under the "Select menu).
Step 2

Now, create a "levels" layer in the layer palette. Your selection should disappear but don't panic! Drag the mid-tone triangle (middle) to the right. This will begin to darken the edges. You may adjust it to what you think looks right for the photo. I like to set my mid-tone settings anywhere from .60 to .50. I feel like this achieves the best results. After you have done this flatten the image.
Step 3

Next, create a "Curves" layer and make an "S" curve. There is no set formula. Adjust to what you think looks best. Don't over do it though! This will help create great contrast. Click OK.
Step 4

Create a seperate layer and fill with black. Set this layer to "Hue" and adjust to 35% or 45% opacity. Once this is complete, flatten or merge layers.
Step 5

Now we are ready to move on to our final process. Part of the beauty of Lomo photographs is the great contrast. This final step will achieve this and also sharpen up your image. Convert your photograph to "lab color" under Image>Mode. Select "lightness" in the channels palette. This will turn your photograph B&W for a moment. Once the "lightness" channel is selected, open the "unsharp mask" box, located under Filter>Sharpen menu. Set both the "amount" and "radius" to 50. Click OK. Now you're ready to covert your image back to RGB and save. Your done! Happy LOMOfying!

Comments

tkdbbelt87 said

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on 5/7/2009 Photoshop is definitely a wonderous program! 5*

on 3/25/2009 @irussell I've never really used any other program than Photoshop. I start with it when they were selling Photoshop 2.5! I sure these types of techniques can be done with other programs though. You'll have to do a little experimenting.